Steady Beats
by Spots On
Summary: It's marching band season, and he's finally able to march. After a year of pleading with his father for his opportunity, Adrien Agreste is more than ready to join his high school band, expecting to make new friends, new memories, and gather new skills. Little does he know of the complexity of band life and perhaps he bit off more than he chew?
1. one

_T_ he band room is loud and freezing, and Adrien can't find a familiar faces among the strangers. He stands in the doorway, wary of venturing far in the crowd of strange people, and others swarm around him to be greeted with shouts and hugs and greetings. Instead, he awkwardly hovers next to the door, one hand holding his case, the other fiddling with the tag claiming it as his. He is unsure of what to do, so he remains rooted to that one spot, watching as everyone else shares hugs and laughs and jokes.

Finally, someone he recognizes steps through the door.

"Adrikins?" she asks, her voice a comfort to hear. Adrien turns, and to his relief, Chloe Bourgeois is standing at the other door, her honey blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and her blue eyeshadow complimenting her blue eyes perfectly.

"Chloe!" he gratefully greets the blonde, and when she flings herself at him, he stumbles to remain standing.

"You're father allowed you to join band?" Chloe sounds surprised at the sudden change of the older Agreste's heart, and Adrien can't help but agree. "What changed?"

"I don't really know..." he admits, "He just called me into his office the other day, and told me I could go to practice. He had Nathalie sign me up for the class and contact the director and everything."

"Well, that doesn't matter. All that matters is that you are going to be in band with me, and we can do _everything_ together..." she lets go of his torso to cling to his arm, and the relief Adrien felt for seeing a familiar face slightly fades as he realizes the implications of her words. They would do _everything together_. Not that he hated spending time with his oldest friend, he had just planned on making new friends separate from Chloe with the newfound freedom his father gave him.

"Yeah..." Adrien slowly extracts his arm from Chloe's grip. "I'm going to head over to my section, Chlo, and talk to the section leader, but I'll catch you later?" he asks.

Chloe pouts her baby pink lips, but drops his arm. After a few moments of awkwardly scanning the room for fellow saxophones, Chloe sighs and points to a lanky pale kid with ebony black hair. "That's Plagg, your section leader," she states, giving him a small smile. "Don't worry, you'll do great." she gently pushes Adrien in the direction, causing him to stumble. He rights himself, ears burning and hoping no one witnessed it, he holds his case tight in his sweaty hands as he maneuvers through the crowd of squealing, gleeful people.

Finally, he is standing in front of 'Plagg', a tall, skinny, pale senior clad in all black and too preoccupied with his phone to notice the scrawny little sophomore in front of him.

"uh, um, hello?" Adrien manages to stutter out, hoping that would be enough to catch the attention of the intimidating beast in front of him. The teen ignores him, scrolling down on his phone with a long, slender finger, and Adrien notices a black cord snaking from his phone and disappearing into Plagg's ears. Sighing, Adrien decides that the best (and possibly only) way to catch his section leader's attention is contact. He reaches forward to tap the black clad shoulder when a voice pipes up.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Plagg hates contact." With a start Adrien turns to face the speaker. He comes face to face with a girl who was the physical opposite of Plagg. Dark skin, short, and plump, the girl had dyed her curly hair a bright pink, and her eyes were a pale mint green. "I'm Tikki, the flute section leader," she greets him. "You must be Adrien, the new sax?"

"I, uh, yes." Adrien fumbles around, reaching a hand up to scratch his head before extending it to her to shake.

The girl, Tikki, giggles, but accepts his hand. "Plagg is a bit... hard to get to know at first, but he warms up eventually." she strides past Adrien to firmly yank the earbuds from Plagg's ears.

"Ow! What the fuck, Tikki?" Plagg curses, shooting the flute an irritated glance. He yanks the cord from Tikki's hands and reaches to put them back in his ears.

"Adrien is here, Plagg," Tikki responds, unfazed by the stream of profanities Plagg unleashed.

"Yeah, well, whoop-de-freaking-doo, go tell someone who actually cares." Plagg snarled, shoving one earbud in.

Tikki rolls her eyes and sighs in exasperation, giving Adrien a look that stated, _can you believe him!?_ "PLAGG! You are his _section leader!_ You _have_ to get him a brief idea on what to do, or assign someone to do it for you."

Plagg hesitates before putting in his left earbud. "Why should I, when I know you will eventually do it?" he questions.

Tikki huffs and opens her mouth to protest before reconsidering. "You know what, fine, I'll have Marinette show him the ropes. Come on, Adrien," she instructs, taking the blonde teen by the arm and marching him to the other side of the room.

"Tikki, wait!" the pink haired girl shoots Adrien a victorious smile, before turning to Plagg with an irritated glare.

"What do you want, Plagg?" she demands, raising an eyebrow and placing her hand on her hip. The pale teen had moved from the wall he had been leaning against, and his phone had been shoved into the kangaroo pocket of his hoodie. Now that he was looking away from his phone, Adrien noticed that his eyes were an electric green, shocking against the monochrome pallet of Plagg's clothes and physical traits.

"I'll have Nino do it." he mutters, just loud enough to be heard over the sounds of band members greeting each other.

"Are you sure? I'm positive Marinette wouldn't mind showing Adrien around..." TIkki trails off.

Plagg shoots her a glare. "I'm positive. Don't want him to be corrupted by the likes of you." he responds.

"Okay then..." shooting Adrien a wink, Tikki let's go of Adrien's arm. "I shall see you around, Adrien." she says, before blending effortlessly into the crowd.

Adrien walks back to Plagg, who sighs heavily when Adrien arrives. "Sorry kid," he gruffly states, "I'm Plagg, your section leader." He reaches up to scratch the back of his head before extending his hand out in greeting, and Adrien firmly grasps it.

"I'm Adrien." he replies. "Alto sax."

"Hey, Nino! Get your lazy ass over here!" Plagg shouts in the direction of the brass side of the room, before turning back to Adrien. "Sorry about that." he tells Adrien, although there is a distinct lack of remorse in his voice. "I have neither the will nor the patience to introduce you to people and explain stuff to you. Ask me about music and playing, I will gladly help you stumble through that, but don't ask me to talk to other people with or for you, because God knows Tikki already forces me to do that." Plagg rolls his neon green eyes at the thought.

"Okay," Adrien responds, unsure of how else to respond, and unsure of what to think of Tikki and Plagg and their erratic behavior.

"Do you say anything besides 'okay' and 'yes'?" Plagg asks, giving Adrien a weird look.

Before Adrien can respond (with an um, yes?), a boy interrupts him. "Yes, Plagg?" he sounds bored, and he completely ignores Adrien.

"Nino, I need you to give Adrien a tour of the place. Introduce him to the important people and whatnot, and show him where to put his instrument." Plagg instructs. "I'm going to be by the cases myself, if you need anything." the look he shoots Nino clearly states that the boy had better not need anything.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, bossman," the teen drawls, saluting the senior as he strode away. "I'm Nino," he starts, turning to face Adrien for the first time. He freezes, honey brown eyes focusing in on Adrien's face. "You're the guy talking to Chloe."

"Uh, yeah? Chloe's a good friend of mine. Why?"

Nino scoffs and rolls his eyes, muttering under his breath. "No reason." he responds, although the glare he shoots Adrien speaks of a thousand reasons and hate. "So, we're in the main band room, but there is also the percussion room, the office, the library, the color guard room, the uniform room, the practice room, and the quartermaster room."

Most of the band members have dispersed from the center of the room, grouped together in their section with their section leader talking in hushed tones. Nino leads Adrien to the doors he had entered.

"So, this is the main entrance to the band room. Most of the time it's locked, though, so I advise going in through the side." Nino matter-of-factly states.

"To your left upon entering the doors, is the board, which will mostly be full of unimportant doodles. To the left of _that,"_ Nino continues, walking past the board, "Is the cabinet where we keep the saxophones and the bass clarinets. We usually will meet here, since bass clarinets join the clarinets." Nino points at where Plagg, along with 7 other band members are.

"Next to our cabinet is the trumpet's area, who are led by the young and beautiful Alya Cesaire." In front of the dark purple cabinets stands a girl with caramel colored skin and dyed red hair. She stands with her back facing Adrien, and a group of 10 or so people sit on the ground facing her. "The trumpets have their own section leader, since there are so many of them. Next to them are the high brass. They are led by Mifeng." In front of the grey cabinets a group of 12 students are focused on their music binders. "Then comes the low brass section, which is led by Paon." They had turned a corner after the grey cabinets, and the tuba cases and sousaphone cases dominated the majority of the next wall.

"Past them are the stands and chairs. We don't use chairs during marching season, so you just have to worry about the stands. On the next wall is the calendar, which holds the important dates for the month, and which you should probably look at often. Then, right at the corner of this wall and the next, is the flute and clarinet shelves. Tikki is the flute section leader, and Volpina is the clarinet section leader. Finally, on the last wall, you can see the office, the hallway, and then the percussion room. Never enter either of those without express permission. Down this hallway, you pass by the other doors to the office and percussion room, then the library, where you get your music, the guard room, which you don't enter, then a sharp right turn, and the uniform, quartermaster, and practice room. Between the guard room and the practice room is the door leading to the outside. Got it? Good." Nino quickly left Adrien standing dumbfounded at the side door.

"What?" he wonders aloud, questioning his ability to retain the sudden downpour of knowledge.

"Adrikins?" a familiar voice causes Adrien to turn.

"Hey, Chloe." he greets.

"How was meeting Plagg? I see he assigned Nino to guide you around." Chloe gives him a smile, "You know, they really don't do a good job on welcoming newbies... maybe I can show you around in more detail?" she suggests, giving him a sweet smile.

"That actually sounds great, would you really Chloe?" Adrien asks. The blonde gives him an enthusiastic nod.

"Sure thing, anything for you, Adrihoney!" she states, immediately clinging onto his arm. "So, this is the side door, and..."

* * *

 **So, here is my Miraculous Ladybug marching band AU fanfiction. I'm not so sure if I like the conversation bit, if it seems weird or anything, but it's the best I can do at this time. Please let me know what you think of this chapter! I appreciate the constructive criticism, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them, I will answer. If you have any ideas or such for the story, just let me know, and I will try to incorporate them, and I hope you enjoy this story.**

 **Also, I made Tikki the flute sectional leader instead of Volpina, who is the more obvious choice, because I want Tikki to be Marinette's section leader, and since I play the flute, it's easier for me to write about playing the flute.**

 **Speaking of which, if you can play the saxophone, if you see something that is incorrect about playing the saxophone, let me know, because I don't play the sax and therefore my knowledge is from what my friends have said and what I can find online.**

 **I appreciate your opinions, and would love it if you let me know how you feel, and thank you for reading!**

 **Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks!**

 **~Spots**


	2. two

_S_ he didn't want to be in marching band.

Walking outside for hours on end playing a stupid instrument? No thanks. Sweat makes her makeup run and God knows that there isn't enough waterproof makeup in the world to prevent her makeup from smudging after a practice. She'd rather quit, honestly.

But band brings a flock of boys to do her bidding, so Chloe guesses that she'll stay. At least until they leave, as they all do.

For now, if simply plucking away at the keys of a stupid keyboard will ensure that she'll never have to carry her books down the hallway, then she'll do it. Not gladly, but, she'll do it. That's what matters, right?

Besides, Adrien is in band now and Chloe can stare at him from her view at the front and fantasize about the day that he realizes that they are in love.

It's bound to be soon.

For now, she has to deal with letting him learn the basics of marching while she remains inside learning the score (which for her includes chords and chords alone- a waste of her talent in her important opinion) but it's okay. Like a snake in the grass she is patient, waiting for the right moment to strike. It's bound to be soon.

With that very exciting prospect, Chloe manages to pay attention for half an hour before letting her eyes glaze over and her hands move on their own accord. It goes by too slowly, each minute, each second, each breath until lunch (because for some reason since they aren't moving around outside, they mustn't need a break, right?) until the seconds drag as if covered in molasses and each breath is as harsh as sand paper against her throat. She's dying of boredom.

Honestly, playing chords is hardly suitable for Chloe's talents. At age five she was performing in concerts and in duets with college aged students, complex music appeared simple beneath her petite hands. And yet Fu has stuck on the fundamentals, the basics. If Chloe cared about band she might've been offended.

Eventually, practice gives way to lunch and the members of pit swarm out like ants from their mound and they blink as their eyes adjust to the sudden light and Chloe swears to God if her eyes tear and her makeup smears...

The familiar sound of Adrien's laugh reaches her ears and her eyes narrow. _She's_ the only person able to make Adrien laugh as if he means it. She quickly finds him, a god among mere mortals, surrounded by perhaps the most irritating group of people Chloe has ever had the misfortune of meeting.

The saxophones.

Led by a certain Nino Lahiffe, the section crowds around Adrien as if they could absorb his awesomeness and even Plagg has a smirk on his face and talks to the honey haired boy, Tikki surprisingly absent. Chloe isn't surprised. Of course they want to be friends with the superior Adrien Agreste. The question is, why is he letting them come so close? He scratches his head and manages to look adorably embarrassed and Chloe raises her eyebrows when Brian throws an arm around the boy. The shock is when the boy lets him.

"Adrikins?" Chloe makes sure her voice is coated with sweetness, her smile is genuine enough and she stalks over to the spot of sunshine where the boys were goofing around. She grabs Adrien's arm and pulls him away, glaring at the section as they leave. They are somber, glaring at the girl as she takes away what is rightfully hers and Chloe sneers at them over Adrien's shoulder.

Once they are a safe distance away, she stops and Adrien speaks up, confused, "Chlo? What was that about?" he questions, "We were just having fun."

Chloe doesn't know how to state the truth without seeming crude so she makes sure the smile she plastered on her face is still there and laughs. "Because, Adrien, you are _my_ friend, not theirs. They are mean and will try to take you away from me. Trust me."

She sees Adrien's brow furrow, can see the wheels turning in his head, but knows that he will always trust what she says. Though he frowns for a moment, he smiles at her, and that's the important part, right?

"Okay, Chlo, whatever you say," he motions to Chloe's yellow and black lunchbox, clutched tightly in her hand. "You want to eat? I'm famished. Marching sure makes you hungry," he jokes and promptly sits on the ground and opens his spring green bag. Chloe follows suit and for a few minutes there is only the sound of sandwiches, chips, and water being consumed.

Adrien smells of sunscreen and sweat and Chloe can't stop her nose from wrinkling when he leans over her to throw away his trash. Glancing over his shoulder at her, his virulent green eyes smile at her. "Do I smell gross?"

Without looking he pelts his trash towards the can, mayonnaise covered sandwich bag and all and Chloe can only watch in slow motion as it flies past the intended target and onto a familiar pink lunchbox.

Adrien doesn't realize at first and returns to his old position, but when Chloe doesn't respond, he frowns and looks over. "Chlo?" he follows her gaze and frowns when he sees the bag draped on the bag. He scrambles over and takes the bag off, horrified to see the goopy contents splattered on the dainty bag. Taking the somewhat soiled napkin, he attempts to wipe the product off, to no avail. His green eyes are wild with panic as he searches for a way to get it off when a loud "Hey!" fills the air.

"What are you doing with my lunchbox?" Marinette Dupain Cheng frowns at the new kid, a quick glance at Chloe's smug expression fills her with wary.

"I, uh, you see," he begins and Marinette cuts him off.

"You were just smearing mayo on my lunchbox! Did Chloe put you up to this?" snatching her bag back she inspects the damage with an appraising eye. "Nevermind," she scowls darkly at the two before moving away, "I have to tell the rest to keep track of their stuff this week."

She leaves Adrien agape and that might be one of the worst things the annoying girl has ever done, so Chloe pipes up to reassure Adrien, "Don't worry, it's only Marinette."

It, apparently is the wrong thing to say because he gives her a heartbroken glance.

"She hates me, no one has ever hated me before!"

Chloe promises herself to complain to her Daddy about Marinette Dupain Cheng before attempting to pacify the panicked Adrien.

* * *

 **Sorry for the long wait! Here is the second chapter, I hope you all liked it!**

 **If you've read any of my other stories before, I apologize for the long waits, I've just been going through a lot this school year...**

 **Anyways, please let me know what you thought! Any and all criticism is welcome!**

 **Sherona849: Marinette has entered the scene! I didn't want to do the gum scene (because chewing gum while playing an instrument isn't the best idea) so I had to revise it, hope you liked it!**

 **ezpear: It was a typo XD I must have missed it when I went through it... sorry!  
**

 **bookworm3: Yeah, I really like the idea of human Plagg and Tikki, so I knew I had to include them in some way, so here they are! I hope to make the story easy enough to understand, even if you aren't in band, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask!**

 **Celeste543: Band is awesome and I hope I do it justice with this fic!**

 **The Blue Miraculer: Thanks!**

 **Music Girl: Sorry for the long wait, just some stuff has been happening... sorry! I'm trying to do better!**

 **patriotwitch: It took me awhile, but I'm starting to get back on the saddle!**

 **Pegalover: I'll admit, I did want to put Chloe on guard, just because she'd be able to do that cool makeup, BUT then I realized that she'd never join guard because she would sue the school if she got hit by a flag and yeah. I put her in pit because she doesn't have to march and at my school the pit mostly gets to stay inside in the AC, which would definitely appeal to her. It was hard to put her in a section because I didn't really want to offend anyone, but throughout the story it kinda shows that she shirks on all duties in pit (ie she doesn't move her keyboard and she only plays keyboard, while in my band most people in pit play at least 2 instruments.) SO yeah, she's not in guard :)**

 **JayFan67: Thanks! I probably will definitely take you up on that offer!**


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